It said that "despite Apple's dominance in tablets", product strategists at rivals "have all launched would-be iPad competitors in Europe".

"But even with all this competition, prices for iPad competitors remain too high, and no player has assembled an ecosystem of content and applications that rival Apple's," it said.

What Should Buyers Use a Tablet For?

Content ecosystems needed to properly address what users want to do with the device "in work and play", Forrester said. In particular, it said, "bringing local content providers as well as business applications developers" onto different platforms will be "crucial" to their success.

Additionally, many rivals had failed to provide the kind of in-store experience of Apple iPads in shopping centres and high streets, it said.

Offering tablets as a service to customers--such as Samsung Galaxy tablets being handed on board to first class passengers on American Airlines--would be successful ways to promote the brand.

Forrester estimates, following a survey with 13,886 adults in Europe, that sales of tablets on the continent will represent a third of global sales. In the United Kingdom, three percent of people surveyed said they own a tablet, and a further 12 percent intend to buy one.

This story, "IPad Could Lose Popularity 'If Other Devices Were Cheaper'" was originally published by
Computerworld UK.

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